The Quest for the Legends

>_> Well, it's back. This is a filler page that will be used for news and side notes, amongst other things. Anyway, the fic starts from the next page (starting with the horrible prologue).

Prologue

The entrance elevator started to whir, disturbing the familiar "clucks" and "clanks" of the patrolling guards' footsteps against the cold metal floor. As soon as the whirring started, the guards closest to the elevator upholstered their guns and waited for the intruder to appear. The elevator slowed with a long "wir" and stopped with a loud "clunk", adding to the tension in the air. The elevator doors slowly opened to reveal a tall man in a black suit with opaque black sunglasses, not looking that much different than one of the Men in Black. The guards holstered their weapons and most of them returned to their patrols, leaving one behind.

"Where is it?" asked the man, not moving from the elevator.

"Where is what?" blankly answered the lone guard.

"You know exactly what I mean," the man retorted in a cold fashion. The man stepped out the elevator and approached the guard. "I don't have time to play 20 questions with you, I came here to destroy the containment unit." the man added with slight annoyance as he pulled out a card from his pocket. He gave the card to the guard, who apparently seemed unable to read through his visor and started to move it into a better light. The man, losing his patience, snatched the card back and read, “Aaron Ace, agent of the D.A.C.U, level 10 clearance. Do you know what that means?". The guard gave a blank expression through his visor, causing Aaron to finally lose his patience, "That means you better move your ass and escort me to the containment unit or I'll have your stupid ass fired."

The guard finally got the message at the word "fired" and hurriedly moved down the corridor with Aaron Ace closely behind, which only made the guard move faster with fear.

As soon as the whirring started, the guards closest to the elevator upholstered their guns and waited for the intruder to appear. The elevator slowed with a long "wir" and stopped with a loud "clunk", adding to the tension in the air. The elevator doors slowly opened to reveal a tall man in a black suit with opaque black sunglasses, not looking that much different than one of the Men in Black. The guards holstered their weapons and most of them returned to their patrols, leaving one behind.

"Where is it?" asked the man, not moving from the elevator.

"Where is what?" blankly answered the lone guard.

"You know exactly what I mean," the man retorted in a cold fashion. The man stepped out the elevator and approached the guard. "I don't have time to play 20 questions with you, I came here to destroy the containment unit." the man added with slight annoyance as he pulled out a card from his pocket. He gave the card to the guard, who apparently seemed unable to read through his visor and started to move it into a better light. The man, losing his patience, snatched the card back and read, “Aaron Ace, agent of the D.A.C.U, level 10 clearance. Do you know what that means?". The guard gave a blank expression through his visor, causing Aaron to finally lose his patience, "That means you better move your ass and escort me to the containment unit or I'll have your stupid ass fired."

The guard finally got the message at the word "fired" and hurriedly moved down the corridor with Aaron Ace closely behind, which only made the guard move faster with fear.

—

Damn it was dark. The term "pitch black" seemed like an understatement to this dark. Wait, I'm supposed to turn this–

ARGH!

The figure was blinded by his flashlight, which he turned on to help him see through this darkness, which was now burning his eyes in the stark contrast of darkness and light. The figure was wearing a ski mask and wore a strange, thick vest with an orange crystal on the center.

Okay, if I can get this far without being caught, I can get past these doors no problem,

The figure turned his attention and his flashlight to the large, steel doors that towered over him, being 12 feet higher than he was.

Here I go!

The figure dropped his flashlight and made a mad dash toward the door, obviously intending to crash into it. As the figure made contact with the door, he phased right though it, ending up on the other side. Amazingly, it was even darker there.

Whew, that door was 2 meters thick and I'm still alive.

The figure glanced at the orange crystal on his vest and saw that the red liquid inside was halfway depleted. He then looked (the term saw cannot be used) at the next door, at least the door that he believed that was there.

This time, I'm running all the way to the end,

The sound of pounding feet filled the small space between the figure and the door before he phased though the door, running past one, and another, and another, and another…

And there it is…it's kinda small though,

The figure gazed at the red and white sphere, no more than 3 centimeters in diameter that was behind a glass case, illuminated by a heavenly light that came from above. There were more than 8 different keypads, complicated locks, and sophisticated scanners that were around the case, but the figure had no intention of figuring them out. He crept up to the case and slowly put his hand out, which phased though the glass, grabbed the small sphere.

YES! Now I just have to–

The figure tried to pull his hand out of the glass, it didn't budge. He pulled harder. Nothing. He quickly looked at his vest, mentally facepalming himself for his stupidity. He forgot to check the amount of liquid in the crystal, and now it was empty.

OH COME ON! Now what?

The figure now gave a perplexed look on his face as he though of ways to get hs hand out of the glass. The figure spent 3 minutes thinking of ways to get his hand out before loudly sighing and took a deep breath…or at least tried to breathe.

There was no air in the room.

He had forgotten that the room is vacuum sealed, which was a problem since he needed air to you know, live. Now he would die in sight of his goal AND reveal the secrets of the crystal that he had…

Wait…

The figure looked at his free hand to see he had another orange crystal on his glove, completely full.

THAT was supposed to be the hand I was supposed to use…now I just feel like an idiot.

The figure tapped the orange crystal on his trapped hand and freed it. Now he could get out.

—

Aaron Ace was now officially what most people call "pissed off" at this point. The guard was fiddling with the keycard machine (again) and kept swiping the card the wrong way (again) and failed to put the confirmation code into the keypad when he did get the card in the right way (again). This has been going on for several floors, 8 to be exact. This was the last locked door until they would get to the vault that Aaron had a sinking feeling that the guard would fail to open. After several tries the doors were finally opened. Aaron stepped into the room and waited for the guard to follow. Aaron sighed and spat, "Well, are you coming?".

"I don't know the codes to open the doors, I just guessed the numbers." the guard replied with embarrassment.

There went the last strand of Aaron's sanity.

One violent assault later, the guard was put into a corner, away from view, as Aaron Ace had clearance to enter the vault (Nobody at the base liked that dipstick anyway). As soon as he stepped inside, he was shocked by the lack of light, and thinness of the air. He continued, venturing deeper and deeper into the vault, talking to himself to drown out the uncomfortable silence, not noticing the flashlight on the floor.

What Aaron looking for lies even deeper in this place, to a place where even the darkness stays away, fearing what is here. Behind five doors that are all 6 feet think lies what is being guarded, a small, familiar, red and white spherical object. A Pokéball as they called it, mostly because it looked exactly like the ones seen in the popular video games. The Pokéball held a Pokémon so powerful that reality would warp the moment the Pokémon was released. As long it was here, the world shall be safe.

After 2 or so hours of waiting for the vault's massive doors to open, he had finally reached the Pokéball, which will soon be taken to be destroyed.

…

But it wasn't there.

(Comments?)

Burning Building Arch: Section 1: It Begins


INTRUDER ALERT, INTRUDER ALERT!

Those were the last words I heard before I was sent to this place; I don't even know where I was. All I know that I was arrested, interrogated, and sent away, somewhere far away. Now my only friends were the smell of must and the darkness. I was a master at the art of thievery; I actually was never caught on tape before, until I was caught for that damned 5 seconds on film, which was more than enough to sentence me to this place. It was fifteen years ago. I was offered 1 billion dollars, all of it being legal, to go steal something using my "expertise".

Funny, I was looking for legal money and I was a thief.

Looking back at it now, all I regret is getting my hand stuck in that stupid glass box. I could have avoided getting caught in that box, I would have gotten away with my freedom and that money…But what was in that ball that was so important? Why did I risk everything on something I had no other knowledge about other than "it's a small, red and white sphere."

….

"BORING AS FUDGE!" exclaimed a droning voice that came out of nowhere.

The setting was Ms. Larsting's literature class, Trenton, New Jersey, the year 2007, fifteen years after the disappearance of the Pokéball. The classroom had several posters of reading, writing, and comprehension tips along with a few computers in the back. The class was discussing a book, written by an anonymous writer who talked about his life in solitary confinement. The classroom was small and was packed with students, but one stood out. It was a student with messy black hair who had an unusual tendency to wear blue who was using a computer in the back, munching away at some potato chips.

"Excuse me Mr. Sotnas?" Ms. Larsting asked the student in the back, offended.

The student kept using the computer and answered, "I said it was boring as fudge. When I say fudge, I mean another 'f' word but–"

"Caasi! This book is a fine piece of–" Ms. Larsting started before being cut off by the student.

"Literature, and it should be respected…like always." the student finished Ms. Larsting's sentence with a bored demeanor.

"What do you mean 'like always'?" Ms. Lasting hissed at the student.

"You bring in any book you get your hands on, no matter how bad it is, and bring it to school. When somebody comments if its hard to follow or the plot's just stupid, you say that its 'fine literature' and nag how books are important. Now you bring a book written by a nut in some prison who kept a journal. Yet again you say its 'fine literature', but its not. You're supposed to bring in meaningful books, not random trash. I don't think you're even doing your job right," Caasi rudely commented, bringing "ooohs" from the several students, all turning to see Ms Larsting's reaction.

"That's it! Go to the–" Ms. Larsting started to bark before noticing the student she was scolding was already walking toward the door.

Caasi had already beaten her to leaving the classroom and heading towards the principal's office before she commanded him to, leaving Ms. Larsting enraged, again. He shoved the remainder of his potato chips into his pocket before continuing down the hallway. Caasi started one of his 'inward monologues' to entertain him while he made his way down the hall.

"Meh, I'm sent out this way a lot. I'm always eating some random food, making a rude comment about the books on purpose, and being yelled at to go to the principal's office. It's not that I like being sent out to the principal's office, but its' better than the bul–wait…that's a little offensive. Maybe the books that Ms. Larsting picks out are not THAT bad, but are still bad." Caasi started thought, almost regretting on insulting Ms. Larsting's taste on books as he rounded the corner of the hallway.

"Wait, what? Her books ARE that bad:"The Adventures of Someguy in this Make-Believe Place", "This Stupid Sci-Fi Novel", "So Thick, It's a Brick"? Dude, they're so bad that even their titles are total c–" Caasi's train of thought came to a complete halt, along with his legs. Caasi froze and took a whiff of a substance that caught his attention:

Smoke.

Something was on fire, and he could hear screaming…familiar screaming. Without even realizing it, Caasi was screaming on the top of his lungs and running away towards the other end of the hallway.

The reason for that was the fact the whole left wing of the school was on fire and Caasi was just down the hallway from the flames that burned a hole right to the first floor.

Looking back as he ran, if he didn't know better, he would have said he just witnessed a little piece of hell. Panic overtook him as he caught a simple glimpse of the flames that turned everything it touched into ashes in seconds. Whatever withstood the heat was glowing an ominous blood red and vaporising into a gas. The hellish scene was complete with pits of white hot flames, fire erupting from seemingly random places which blackened everything to a crisp, people's screams that were quickly silenced, and was topped off with a silhouette that seemed to be at home with the fire, the local demon.

When the images all finally played back in his mind, Caasi stopped, dead in his tracks again. "Demon?" Caasi though, looking back at the flames to see nothing but the all consuming fire creeping farther into the hallway. Without further questioning, he bolted down the hallway and around the corner where the fire alarm was located. Caasi quickly lifted the protective covering, coughing from the smoke, and made a mad reach for the "ALARM" lever.

It didn't respond. The fire was staged.

"This is just insane, nobody would do this on purpose!" Caasi thought to himself, denying the grim scenario he was in. Caasi quickly looked back, smoke stinging his eyes, to see that the all consuming fire had quickly caught up to him.

"What?! Fire can't move that fast!"Caasi thought to himself in disbelief as he turned around to make a mad dash for the stairs to the ground floor that was just a few meters away from him. He stopped and looked in pure horror to see that the fire engulfed the stairs that were closest from him, trapping him from both sides. Caasi backed up against the wall, not knowing what else to do. Caasi felt a bulge on his lower back, a doorknob. He turned around to see the most beautiful sight of his life, Ms. Larsting's class, which had a fire escape that he could use. Caasi turned around, turned the doorknob and pushed the door open, eyes shedding tears from happiness and from the smoke burning his eyes.

His expression quickly turned from happiness to disgust and horror as he saw the most horrific sight of his life.

Bodies were mangled, blackened to a crisp and thrown across the room, fear still visible on their charred faces. Several students and acquaintances were nothing but charcoal, especially Ms. Larsting. Desks, chairs, and we tossed aside and pushed over to form some kind of barrier, which seemed to have been futile since charred bodies also lay behind the barrier.

Caasi looked at the destruction that lay before him, horrified on how such destruction could be made in such a short time. " Damn, just damn…whatever did this had to be some sort of monster to–"

His thoughts were interrupted as the hairs on the back of his neck stood up stiff and a cold chill ran down his spine.

The sounds of chewing and smacking emitted from somewhere in the room, and it wasn't coming from him.

SOMETHING was still in the room with him. Ignoring his common sense, Caasi slowly crept towards the noise, looking for the source of the noise until is ears told him exactly where the noise was coming from: the closet where emergency supplies were stored.

Then he saw it. He couldn't believe his eyes.

Almost hidden in the darkness of the closet was a short, demonic figure. Something about it was familiar; the figure was human shaped in anatomy, yet it had bright red scaly skin, one round horn coming from the back of its head, razor sharp claws, and had a tail that ended with a blazing flame. It wasn't a human to any extent, let alone a regular animal. It was one of many creatures that were only supposed to be fictional beings, a Pokémon. Being a fan of these beings for quite a while now, Caasi knew each one's name, attributes, elemental type, powers, and weaknesses by heart. It didn't take him long to realize that the demonic figure was a Charmeleon. It was eating something from the closet, apparently starved to death. It stopped momentarily to raise its head from its food, making Caasi twitch in surprise, but it luckily went back to its eating.

"That was close, but how is a freaking Charmeleon even here? Why would it be here, and why would it do all this? This is too much to–"

A badly charred desk gave out behind Caasi, landing with an all too audible "thud".

The Charmeleon raised its head from its unknown meal.

"Don't look back…don't look back," Caasi mentally pleaded to the Charmeleon.

It turned around.

"Just go back to eating," Caasi mentally begged, half knowing what was to come if the creature saw him.

It looked directly at Caasi, who could only give a wide eyed stare.

The Charmeleon sniffed the air around Caasi twice, backing its head slowly.

"This is the part where I get eaten," Caasi dourly thought to himself, closing his eyes to wait for the imminent lunge for his throat.

Nothing happened.

Caasi peeked to see the Charmeleon standing perfectly still, only giving him a cold, empty stare.

Caasi mentally sighed again, "OK, staring is good. Now I can just make a run for the fire es–"

The Charmeleon suddenly gave a terrifyingly loud, throaty snarl before opening its jaws and lunging forward at Caasi's throat.

—

A door slid open in a dark room illuminated by the light of three computer screens. In the front of the computers sat an aged man, his grey hair brushed back, and wore a black suit, blending him into the darkness. Another figure, a short, fat man wearing a white lab coat, entered the room, out of breath.

"Yes?" the aged man asked without turning around in his chair. "What is it?"

The figure spoke between his panting, "We have a…situation…in a school…on fire." The figure then held out a folder, filled with papers, to the man in front of the computer.

"We're not firefighters, Dr. Ghordine, we only respond to serious situations, not regular fires," the man seated in front of the monitors icily told the figure.

"But sir–"

"The last time you said that we had a situation, the bakery was out of chocolate cake. Now leave." the suited man retorted, keeping his icy tone.

"It's a work of a Pokémon sir, and its turning into a sce–" Dr. Ghordine started explaining, before the aged man quickly turned around in his chair and snatched the folder Dr. Ghordine was still holding.

The man quickly started to skim the contents of the paper, flipping quickly through the documents before handing the folder back to Dr. Ghordine. "Get D.A.C.U agents 65, 23, and 40 on it. Tell them we have a fire Pokémon and to use extreme caution." the aged man commanded.

"Uh, right sir." Dr. Ghordine blankly obeyed before waddling out the door.

The grey haired man turned around his chair, nervously eying the computer monitors. "I have a feeling that this case will only get more complicated." the man thought as he skimmed the papers in the folder. He stopped dead when the leftmost computer displayed a message in red. The suit clad man immediately stood up, spilling the papers all over the floor, before bolting out the door, yelling frantically for Dr. Ghordine.

The computer read: Bug III Activity Detected.

They had a Bugged Pokémon at the school, and more were on their way.

—

The hellish fire that was on the outside of the classroom was burning it's way though the wall quickly, and time was running out. The fire escape that was Caasi's only safe method of escape from the building, but it was gone now. He was again cornered by the fire.

"Get off me!" Caasi demanded as he tried to wrestle the Charmeleon off.

The Charmeleon rebelled by trying to slash Caasi's torso, but Caasi grabbed the Charmeleon's arms and held them away from his body. Now without the use of its arms, the Charmeleon opened its jaws again to bite Caasi's throat. Before the Charmeleon had the chance to attack, a charred section of the ceiling material collapsed with enough racket to distract the Charmeleon. Caasi took this chance to release both arms from the large lizard's arms and to then quickly send both fists onto the lizard, one to the face, another onto the stomach. The Charmeleon fell to the side in recoil, giving Caasi the chance to roll away and to get back to his feet.

Something struck him as “odd” at this point. He single-handedly took down a Charmeleon which was supposed to be stronger, and faster than him and had the ability to use fire, which it strangely didn't. Unfortunately, Caasi lost concentration for a mere second which could have helped him avoid the large lizard that was charging at him at full speed—

Indeed, the Charmeleon was charging at Caasi, who was caught off guard and knocked down to the floor. This time, the Charmeleon gave him no chance to escape and pinned both of Caasi’s arms down with its scaly claws. Hovering over Caasi with its eerily cold, blank stare, the lizard once again revealed its razor sharp teeth. In a flash, it once again lunged for Caasi’s throat. The screaming even pierced the thunderous crackling of the fire just outside the door.

"NO!" Caasi hollered, knowing it would be his final word before the clutches of death took hold.

They never did.

Only mere inches away from Caasi's throat was the Charmeleon, frozen with its jaws wide open.

Scrunching his eyebrows in confusion, he tried to give the lizard another order, "Off?"

The Charmeleon was animated once more, obeyed the order; releasing its grip from Caasi's arms and backed away from Caasi.

"If it follows orders, why didn't it get off me earlier when I yelled at it?" Caasi wondered, the attack replaying in his mind. Seeing that the Charmeleon was patiently awaiting for orders, Caasi tried another order, "Go back to doing what you were before,"

The Charmeleon tilted its head to the side in confusion.

"OK, so long sentences confuse it. What about something shorter?" Caasi looked at the large lizard thats stood before him and took out the bag of leftover chips in his pocket. "Eat." Caasi ordered, throwing the bag to the center of the room.

The Charmeleon sprang into action, chasing after the bag like an excited dog, tore half of the bag off, and started to snack on the contents.

“This is just stupid,” Caasi told himself as he brushed the rubble from his clothes. However, another thing struck him as odd this time. The room was filled with mangled bodies, burned to a crisp, and thrown across the room, not just slashed to bits as they were. Some bodies also had a strange point of impact, as if they were hit by something at going at a high speed. So whatever did this must have been a fire type (dur), be able to move at amazing speeds, and have a powerful jaw attack that could tear flesh. Which Pokémon could possibly do all of that?

The answer came crashing though the wall.

It emerged from the flames, slowly revealing itself. It appeared to be a large tiger, complete with menacing teeth, orange fur with black stripes. It had three odd features for a tiger: the fluffy cream colored mane and the just as fluffy cream tail, accompanied by a dog-like muzzle. It was an Arcanine.

The Arcanine growled ominously as it entered the room, scanning for something. Caasi dashed behind the charred remains of a large, turned over desk in the front of the room. Caasi could sense that it wanted to kill by the look in its eyes and the ominous aura that came with it. The Arcanine started to sniff the air, picking up a scent. It then ran over to the desk Caasi was hiding behind, picked it up in its powerful jaws, and chucked it across the room. The flying desk nearly hit the still snacking Charmeleon, who didn’t seem to notice a desk fly just over his head and smash into the fire escape, which then collapsed.

Caasi didn’t look behind him; he knew that he was cornered.

The Arcanine’s muzzle then started to glow a faint orange, before opening his mouth to reveal what he planned on doing.

It was planning to cook Caasi with a Flamethrower.The Arcanine’s muzzle then started to glow a faint orange, before opening his mouth to reveal what he planned on doing.

It was planning to cook Caasi with a Flamethrower. The ceiling, however, had other plans.

It was either luck or divine intervention, but the ceiling above the Arcanine collapsed, burying the tiger in rubble and leaving the rest of the room intact. Caasi, who was awaiting his certain end, turned his head while staying in his crouched position to see that the Arcanine did emerge from from the rubble.

Caasi, still surprised, slowly got up and examined the pile of rubble. It still didn’t move. This would have mattered more if the floor didn’t start to sink.

“Gah!” Caasi yelped as he jumped away from the sinking floor. He looked at how the floor sank: the wall on the other side of the room was collapsing, and the floor started to part and slope down to the lower floor. He then knew what was happening. The school was structurally unsound due to the unrelenting fire burning away at the school’s support columns and walls, weakening them. In other words:

The school was going to collapse, and he had no way out.

To make matters worse, the fire and smoke from the hallway now seeped in through the massive hole in the wall consumed the entire left side of the room, slowly creating a perimeter around the room. The smoke was becoming too much for Caasi’s lungs and eyes, his eyes feeling like they were melting, and his lungs filling with hot lead. He collapsed to the floor, coughing wildly and eyes still burning. He was surrounded by fire, the building was about to collapse at any second, and there was nobody to rescue him…unless…

“Charmeleon!” Caasi was able to say in the general direction of the lizard, which was hopefully still in the room.

No answer.

“Charmeleon!” Caasi called out again after having a coughing fit.

Still no answer.

“CHARMELEON!” Caasi loudly bellowed with desperation to the lizard.

There was no response, just the thunderous crackling of the fire that will soon burn him to a crisp, just like the various scorched corpses in the room. Or at least, that’s what he thought until he felt something sharp poke at his side.

Caasi looked up, still coughing, at the red lizard that stood before him, now with a confused look on his scaly face. That sight was better than any fire escape than Caasi could think of, with an extraordinary resistance to fire, the ability to break down the walls of the school, and the ability to guide Caasi to the outside; it was the best chance he had to escape, even though it tried to kill him earlier.

The Charmeleon poked Caasi’s side again, making a slow waving motion with his arm. The arm was blurry due to Caasi’s eyes basically burning a hole though his head, but he could make out a silver bag in between its claws. Caasi smirked, the Charmeleon was out of chips and it wanted more.

Perfect.

Caasi slowly stood up with a grin on his face, trying his hardest not to cough. “If you want more, you’ll have to do something for me. Get me out of this school, and I’ll buy you three bags of those chips.” Caasi said in the most convincing tone he could to the lizard.

The Charmeleon, clearly not understanding English, gave another perplexed look on his face.

Caasi, not wasting any time, snatched the bag of potato chips from the Charmeleon’s claws, pointed to it, pointed to the still confused Charmeleon, pointed to himself, pointed to the empty bag again, made a gesture that meant both of them, pointed to the window outside, pointed to the floor, held both hands level and brought them down quickly, pointed to the Charmeleon again, then himself again, and finally brought the well known gesture of moving his finger across his throat (which meant death).

The Charmeleon, clearly more adept at understanding complicated gesturing than understanding English, quickly grabbed Caasi’s arm and dragged him to the closet in back of the room.

Now the smoke was nearly blinding him, but he could just see the blurry image of another opening in the wall, large enough for both of them to get through. Caasi held the Charmeleon’s dry, scaly skin tighter as he was yanked though the opening into the next room. He then heard a deafening rumble and could smell smoke in the air.

The room they were just in five seconds ago just collapsed.

That meant the room they’re in now wouldn't last long either. They had to move quickly. That wasn’t a big problem, actually. The breeze was nice here. Then Caasi opened his eyes to see only one thing: a very dark, undersized room made mostly out of metal.

Then it hit him: They had just jumped into an elevator shaft and were now falling.

(Comments?)

Biography of a Pyromaniac

It was like nothing I had seen before. It was awesome and horrifying at the same time.

I had just witnessed a building that was set ablaze crumble into rubble - the top floor, anyway. People in that building were probably dead, burned alive, trapped and eaten, or even ripped to shreds, all doomed in some way.

And the best thing about it was that I had done it myself.

I had sabotaged the school’s fire alarms, sprinklers, exit doors so they wouldn’t open, and disabled all 9-1-1 calls from being made within twenty blocks of the area. I did it all to watch my fire grow.

I had always been fascinated by fire, how it breathes, how it grows, and how it destroys everything it touches. People may call me a “pyromaniac”, “psycho”, or even “monster”, but I don’t care. Fire saved my life time and time again, always protecting me, giving me warmth and strength when nobody cared about me. So it was only natural that I kept it around me all the time. I had pet candles which I was a child, I didn’t give them names because they wouldn’t last long, but I did keep one of my candles throughout my life, a very special one which I'll tell you about later.

For almost as long as I could remember, I was alone and had my fire. I was homeless, always moving from place to place just to find a bite to eat and a place to sleep. I was never hungry because my fire helped me cook things, I was never cold because my fire kept me warm, and I was never blind because my fire always lit the way. If I had never gotten that one candle that I still have with me, I would have been dead by the age of eight. I will never forget the day that I got it.

It was about eighteen years ago, when I was nine years old, when I got caught up in a horrific storm. The wind kept howling, the snow kept stinging my face, and my fingers, toes, and legs were numb from the cold. There was snow in every direction, all cold and wet, practically freezing my feet. I took cover under the nearest bridge, but that didn’t keep out the elements. I was sure I was going to die. Then he showed up. The man was about six or so feet tall, maybe shorter, and had a strange, scratchy voice. He looked at my shivering and asked, “Why are you so cold?”

I thought the man was crazy; it had to be below zero degrees and he wasn’t even wearing a coat, just a white suit. I was so cold I wasn’t even able to speak. Then he said, “I’m never cold, because I have this.”

That’s when he pulled out the candle. It was shaped like a tiger sitting on a small, shallow dish, ready to pounce; a flame burned in its mouth, gleaming off the facets of an orange crystal set into the wax on its belly. It was scary to me then, but it was the most valuable thing I ever received. The man bent forward and gave it to me while saying, “It’s a candle, and it’s a magic one. The fire will never go out, and it will always protect you. Never leave it.”

The moment I touched it, I knew it wasn't a regular candle. I felt warmth fill my entire body and the numbness faded away, letting me feel my toes again. By the time I looked up to thank him, he was gone. From that day on, the way I lived my life changed.

My interest in fire from that point on became an obsession. I set things on fire, like newspapers, shrubs, and dead rats, just to see them burn and to watch the fire dance. At first I did it once in a while; then I did it habitually and every chance I got.

But it wasn’t enough for me.

The fires were too small, and their output wasn’t on a grand enough scale for me. I wanted more. By that time, I had discovered what my candle (at this point, it was oil with a small flame sitting on it) could do: it could send off a jet of flames when I wanted it too. I would soon learn that the candle did more than that; it would never melt into a hot wax, it would just turn into an orange oil that never turned into a solid instead. Whatever fire that used that oil to burn couldn't be extinguished, not even underwater. That’s when things became very interesting. At age twelve, I was burning down trees, by fifteen, I had committed at least seventy acts of arson and by nineteen, I was burning people.

Now, don’t be quick to judge me. The people I burned were rapists, child molesters, and the occasional murderer. They had it coming anyway. Just don’t ask me why I picked that particular bunch of people to target; I don’t like to talk about it.

Growing up, I never really talked to people much; they usually saw what I did, called me a demonic child, and ran. “That doesn’t really matter, my oil is the only friend I’ll ever need,” I usually told myself. On the inside, I just wanted to find somebody who loved fire as much as I did to be my friend. I never found anybody like that until I turned twenty, when I was captured and sent to prison.

I was wanted in several states for murder, arson (my specialty), and several other charges that I didn’t understand back then. My trial didn’t even take an hour to finish; I was guilty on all counts and was sentenced to life in solitary confinement. At first, it didn’t bother me that I was being sent to live my life alone without even the slightest bit of human contact, I was used to it.

Then they took away my oil.

I snapped. They had just separated me from the thing that kept me alive for eleven years. I was snarling, biting, fighting, crying, and cursing, all at the same time. Everything after that was just a blur, I must have blacked out from stress. When I woke up, I thought it was a horrible nightmare, but reality didn’t pull any punches. I tried to move my arms.

They didn’t move.

I tried standing up.

My legs didn’t move either.

The only things that seem to work properly were my eyes, which were soon fixed shut and filled with tears. The harsh reality was that I was in a padded room, with nothing but the drab clothes I was last wearing before I was captured and a straitjacket, my oil was nowhere in the room. I felt like I wanted to die. I opened my eyes to get one last look at my eternal prison.

I might has well have looked at a saint.

Right in front of me stood a familiar man, wearing a white suit. He looked exactly the same as I remembered him. He took one look at me, grinned, and asked with his scratchy voice, “Why are you crying?”

I was so overcome by happiness, I didn’t answer. I knew what would happen.

“They took away your oil? Now that just won’t do. Can you guess what I brought for you?” the man asked as he pulled out a familiar object. It was my oil. Then he did something unexpected. “I’ve also heard that you were lonely. I think I could help you with that.” The man then put down the oil and pointed to an orange puppy that was in front of him.

Several things about the puppy confused me. It was orange with black stripes, for one; it also had a fluffy, cream-colored tail and a mass of matching cream colored fur on the top of its head. But it was cute and had a playful expression on its face.

“I want you to take your oil back and to take care of this puppy. I think you’ll like her,” the man told me as he undid the straight jacket.

I hugged him as soon as I was free, tears still streaming from my eyes.

“Now,” he started as he reached for the oil, “the fun begins.” The tall man in the white suit handed me my oil. I immediately knew what to do.

I burned the whole prison to the ground and everyone in it. And I liked it.

The man in the white suit and the puppy stood outside the prison and watched the holocaust that ensued. Once it was finished and I had emerged from the rubble, the man approached me and proposed an offer I couldn’t refuse:

“What if you could do that anytime you want without getting into trouble? If you work for me, I’ll guarantee that you’ll never see prison walls again.”

Needless to say, I accepted.

I would then be on my own for a while, with the puppy he gave me being the only thing at my side, and we could burn down anything we wanted. The puppy soon learned how to breathe fire, a skill that interested me. She actually loved to burn down things as much as I did, and and we grew on one another. We wouldn’t spend every waking moment burning things down; we would actually do what “normal” people did once in a while. We would go to a park and play fetch, Frisbee and catch together. Of course, the park would be burnt to the ground when were done, which made it all the more fun.

I would get funds from the man in the white suit to support myself so I wouldn’t have to live on the street. In exchange, I had to burn some places down to the ground, with some “specific objectives”. The objectives usually meant keeping somebody from the fire alive, not totally burning something to the ground, or just to avoid being seen in public. I actually learned how to do quite a few things from those objectives, such as sabotaging phone lines, security systems, and at least five ways to break into a building that didn’t have any windows or doors.

After many years of burning down buildings, prisons, “maximum security” establishments, banks, casinos, and people (mainly murderers), he gave me a rather odd task. He asked me to burn down a school that was halfway across the country in New Jersey (I was in Seattle at the time) without anybody knowing it happened or leaving any survivors. I was confused at first (he never asked me directly to commit mass murder), but he assured me it was for a good cause. In the night before I started the fire, I snuck into the building through the basement along with my puppy (now a full grown dog) and sabotaged a few systems. I left my dog there as I disabled any phone lines that were in close range of the school.

At 9 am, my dog had already started the plan. I could see she was doing a thorough job at it too, seeing how she lit the entire left wing on fire.

By the way, I happen to be a girl. I just felt like I needed to say that, mostly because people think that boys are usually the ones who are able to be interested by fires as much as I am. I can’t tell you my name; it’s against a policy I have with the man I’ve told you about. Actually, there are many things about the plan and my escape methods I can't tell you about. I’ll tell you this much though:

It will end with a bang.

(Comments?)

Section 3: Escape Death's Clutches

”What were you thinking?! Asking a lizard that almost killed you for help and actually trusting it? The only explanation for that is that you're an idiot!” Caasi mentally scolded himself as he and the Charmeleon zoomed down the elevator shaft, passing the second floor mark.

"What?!" another side of Caasi said disbelievingly, “You would have been crushed under a pile of rubble and burnt to death if we never asked for Charmeleon’s help in the first place! At least you’re getting helped by somebody who can actually save you!”

”That somebody happens to be a homicidal lizard!" Caasi's negative side (mentally) spat back.

"Look, at least you have a chance to make it out alive, right?" Caasi's positive side meekly responded.

"No. Look." Caasi's negative side simply stated.

"No way, I won't look!" every other possible part of Caasi complained in unison.

At that moment, the world seemed to slow down as Caasi's eyes locked onto the nightmarish scene that was unfolding in front of him. Looking through the open section of the shaft, Caasi saw the main hallway of the school, engulfed by the all consuming flames. That wasn’t the worst part; it was who was staring back at him through the fire: the Arcanine. Caasi's eyes met the beast's eyes to see that they were filled with nothing but rage and bloodlust; it was very much alive. And it wanted revenge.

The Arcanine weightlessly leaped into the elevator shaft, strands of flames streaming out of its mouth. It only took one glimpse of its muzzle to see what it planned to do: incinerate Caasi and the Charmeleon at point blank range.

The world came to a skidding halt in Caasi's mind as his whole life flashed before his eyes.

"It ends here? That's it? That's just the end of my life?" he sorrowfully thought as he recalled various memories from his childhood.

"No, I won't die. I'll just luck out like I did before…right? Yeah, if I lucked out three times today, why not four?" Caasi denied as previous life-death events replayed in his mind, including today's events.

His denial stopped as a picture of a towering man with a knife flashed into his mind, along with the emotions from "that" day.

"You know what will happen to you. Don't deny it." the innermost part of Caasi knew.

"But–"

Another flash, this time containing a sickening image of bright red blood, came to mind.

"Remember the scar, the cut arteries? Don't forget what it was meant to teach you. I think you know what you have to do now.", his innermost part grimly told him.

Instead of pictures, he remembered a phrase: Close your eyes and it will all be over.

"R-r-right…", Caasi meekly thought as the world seemed to come into motion again.

Caasi then held the Charmeleon’s arm even tighter, and closed his eyes, ready to take the massive amount of pain that was sure to come with the release of death.

"HWAH!" a strong grunt resonated in his ears from the darkness.

Then it came.

…

The world seemed to madly spin in his mind as the chaotic chorus of breaking metal, screeching, and yelping thundered out.

"I guess I died from the crash from the sounds of it…damn that sucks," Caasi thought, not sure if he should be glad or mournful over his death. "Might as well do something productive, let's see what heaven's like." Caasi unenergetically suggested to himself. Caasi opened his still burning eyes and took a quick look around him; he was someplace dark, immense, and cool.

"This looks more like a cave than heaven…" Caasi confusedly thought before realizing where he really was: the basement level of the school. "Wait…I'm still alive?" he asked himself as he looked at his hands that were slowly coming into focus. "I could still see and I still have a physical body, so that means I'm still alive! Take that overly negative thoughts about d–!" Caasi mentally celebrated before his thoughts came to a halt when his eyes came across his scarred wrist, triggering a forgotten conversation from long ago.

"Wha's dying?" a high-pitched voice echoed in Caasi's mind.

"I think it's something YOU can't do. But I will have to be sure." responded the deeper, scratchier voice of a man

A cold chill rushed down Caasi's spine as he remembered the metallic rummaging.

"Wha' are you doin' wid dat knife?" the high-pitched voice innocently asked.

"A…test." the man said, stopping to choose the right word as if to avoid a reaction.

Shaking off the flashbacks he did not want to recall, Caasi looked around where he was and noticed something was missing, "Where's Charmeleon?" He looked up to where he rolled from, the elevator shaft, and saw glowing, orange dust wafting from it. Cringing away from what could have been his death place, Caasi then looked to his left, where the Charmeleon laid in the darkness; it was lit by the flame that was still burning on his tail, strangely wrapped around its torso.

"Wait, the only for its tail to wrap around its body like that was if it rolled…if WE rolled. Caasi noticed as he remembered himself "rolling out to death". Caasi was confused, "The only way that we both rolled was that Charmeleon to roll WITH me, which saved me. But did it really mean to? Wh–" Caasi stopped as soon he remembered he offered to give the Charmeleon potato chips if it got him out of the building. Caasi shook his head and grinned, "It only saved me for chips, what a sense of morality.

Caasi rolled over towards the Chameleon and poked it. The lizard groaned and moved away from the pain. It was alive.

What actually happened in the elevator shaft was more wit than luck. As Caasi closed his eyes, the Charmeleon noticed that the Arcanine was after them, ready to kill them both. Acting on a moment’s whim, the lizard held Caasi closer to his body, pushed off the metal wall with all the force in its body, launched diagonally out of the elevator shaft, and narrowly made the last opening in the shaft to opening to the basement. They both landed with minimal impact since they landed rolling, and made it out in one piece. The Arcanine, however, never made it out of the elevator shaft, and crashed on the remains of the destroyed elevator that had plummeted to its doom earlier.

Caasi slowly got up, limping due to the amount of pain from the fall that affected him, to get a good look around the room. On the far side was the boiler, it was turned off at this time of year so it was, obviously, off. There were back-up generators to the sides of the room, but they clearly weren’t working. However, there were red lights on the side of one of the generators, the boiler, and one a few meters away from Caasi.

He rubbed his eyes to remove the blurriness in them caused by smoke, dust, and some debris from the landing. He looked at the red light again, it was a digital display. It was counting down. It was a large piece of machinery. It was a bomb.

And it was set to detonate in T-minus 3 minutes.

Caasi rushed over to the Charmeleon’s side, “Get up! GET UP! GET UP NOW!” he commanded while wildly shaking the Charmeleon.

The Charmeleon’s eyes immediately snapped opened and it scrambled a few meters backwards. It was staring with a wide open jaw in the direction of the elevator shaft, like it just saw a ghost. Caasi, wondering what could instill so much fear into the Charmeleon, looked at the elevator shaft, and did the same.

A large figure slowly emerged from the glowing dust, revealing itself. The Arcanine survived, but barely. It was both a horrific and heartbreaking sight. Its sides had most of the skin peeled off from sliding down the elevator shaft, revealing the bloody muscle underneath, with some spots having small chunks of its muscle missing. Whatever skin was left was matted with blood, debris, and dirt. The Arcanine slowly approached with major effort, limping and falling several times just to move a few meters. But the beast’s eyes had fury and rage in them, still wanting to fight. Still wanting to kill. It wasn’t willing to die just yet.

Caasi and the Charmeleon stared in disbelief at the Pokémon that stood before them, torn between fighting it or running from it.

The Arcanine made that decision for them.

With an eerily loud howl that almost made Caasi and the Charmeleon jump out of their skin, the Arcanine prepared its next attack. It struggled to bring its head back, as if to bring out something from the back of its throat. As it did so, strands of flames escaped the sides of the Arcanine’s muzzle.

"That can't be…can it?" Caasi knew at an instant what it planned on doing, and he reacted just as quickly. He scooped up the large lizard and dove backwards, landing on his back.

Then, where he had been just microseconds before was a spectacular stream of flames that seemed to be belched right from the bowels of hell itself, swirling into one straight line. Unbearable heat seemed to burn off his skin and eyes for a few agonizing seconds. Just as quickly as the hellish flame and heat came, it was gone and the feeling of cool quickly engulfed his body again. That’s when it occurred to him:

He had just narrowly dodged an Overheat.

Caasi looked on his stomach to look at the lizard, shocked at the sheer power of the flames, but unharmed. He then nudged the lizard off him to quickly pat himself down, no burns or any combusted clothing from the fiery blast or the lizard's tail. That’s when Caasi gave a harsh look at the beast that had almost killed him, which was too busy heavily panting in pain to notice.

That’s when Caasi saw it.

Hung up in a thin glass casing right behind the Arcanine was a map, the layout to the basement. Using almost superhuman vision, Caasi saw the “Emergency Exit” symbol on the map, only a few meters away from him. Glancing back at the red blinking menace that was now closer to him he saw what the display said:

T- minus 2 minutes.

Caasi then gave one final look at the Arcanine, apparently in too much pain to do anything more. It had occurred to him: he could get away. He could just take the Charmeleon and break out the emergency exit. He had nothing to stop him.

With a victorious grin on his face, he grabbed the Charmeleon’s arm and yanked it towards the emergency exit.

He was almost there. Freedom was so close…

But yet so far.

With a loud whoosh and an orange blur, everything just seemed to fall apart.

Caasi and the Charmeleon were caught totally off guard, and were sent flying across the room, crashing against the inactive boiler with a very audible “tang” that rung out in the darkness. The Arcanine turned around to face the metal door and used another Overheat, this time in a faster but less powerful fashion, and the door melted shut.

Caasi and the Charmeleon were trapped with the Arcanine. There was T-minus 1 minute 30 seconds until the bombs were set to detonate.

It took Caasi a few seconds to recover from the impact, but when he looked up; he had wished that he was dead.

Towering over him was the heavily injured Arcanine, with fury and hate in its eyes that seemed to burn hotter than any fire that has ever existed before.

Caasi tried to get back up to his feet to scramble away, but the beast held him down with its front paw.

Pinned.

With an expression of triumph on its face, the Arcanine lifted his head back with less trouble than it had last time, and thin strands of flame escaped his muzzle.

”Well, this is it. I had survived being attacked by a Charmeleon, escaped from a collapsing room, jumped into an elevator shaft, escaped the elevator shaft, and dodged an Overheat today. I guess I just pushed my luck too much today, and this is how it ends, dying the same way everybody else in the school.” Caasi sadly thought as he looked at the Arcanine with tears in his eyes.

The strands of flames grew into long threads.

Caasi’s heart started to pump faster to the point it felt like it was about to burst out of his chest. Everything else seemed to just melt away, only leaving the sound of his beating heart and the fire that would be his certain doom.

The attack was ready and it was about to cook Caasi alive.

Thump thump.

Not if the Charmeleon could help it.

With a great leap, the lizard latched onto the Arcanine’s skinless side and bore all four of his claws into the muscle and slashed them down the beast’s side, accompanied with a gruesome display of spurting blood.

The Arcanine yelped with great anguish before falling to the ground, landing in a puddle of its own bright red blood.

Before Caasi had time to be horrified and squeamish at the scene, the fire that the Arcanine was released right towards the emergency exit, melting the entire door, and providing an escape route.

The beast, unable to get back up, just gave an expression filled with rage, pain, sadness, and hopelessness at Caasi, who just stared back with an apologetic expression. Caasi didn’t think any Pokémon should die this way, even if it did commit mass murder. It didn’t matter, the Arcanine was too large and heavy to even remotely lift it out the exit, and it was doomed to die here.

His eyes locked at the sight of the unnaturally red blood spilling on the floor, remembering the same exact experience 9 years ago.

Snapping back to reality, Caasi looked back at the countdown.

T-minus 55 seconds.

“CHARMELEON! WE HAVE TO GO NOW!” Caasi shouted at the Charmeleon, which was staring blankly at the defeated Arcanine.

Not needing anymore instruction, Caasi and the Charmeleon made a mad dash though the basement and to the melted mess of a door. They jumped through it, running even faster through the grassy field outside, hectic rustling accompanying their pumping legs. After they passed the field, they dashed into the small wooded area, looking back only once at the flaming remains of the school and kept on running.

Back in the basement, the fatally wounded Arcanine slowly limped towards a collar, inching its way forward slowly. On the collar was a small, white orb that had the name “Brenna” on it. The bomb kept counting down:

5…

The Arcanine was just a meter away from the collar.

4…

Now half a meter away…

3…

Almost there…

2…

Just a few centimeters away…

1…

GOT IT!

Beep.

With that, the whole school exploded with a thunderous “KA-DOOM”, sending a wave of dust that spread out over the city block. In the place of the school, was nothing but a large, dark mushroom cloud, slowly rising high into the sky.

Looking at the explosion from a safe distance were Caasi and the Charmeleon, in a park that was just outside the woods they went through. They had both just avoided being caught in that explosion, except for the Arcanine.

Taking a deep breath, Caasi looked around the park; it was empty and was safe to come into the open with a Charmeleon.

Caasi then pulled the Charmeleon out of the woods and asked it, “I guess you want those chips now?”

This time, the Charmeleon seemed to understand, it nodded and gave what seemed to be a grin.

“OK, come on; let’s go home to get some, I have plenty there.”, Caasi told the Charmeleon as he started to walk in the direction of his house. The Charmeleon looked back at the black smoke that was lingering over the school before stumbling after Caasi.

—

On a hill on the other side of the park, was a girl, her long, naturally silky, orange hair flowed in the wind as she paced around impatiently.“She was supposed to be here 7 minutes ago!” she told herself while pacing, her deep green eyes burning with anger. “She better not be doing anything stupid like fooling around in that school, I told her at least ten times not to—“ The girl stopped as a terrible idea entered her mind. “What if she was trapped in there?! What if she got caught in the explosion?!” she panicked while looking at the smoke cloud. She was about to take off toward the school, but something hit her against the back of her jacket, ash staining the pale yellow wool.

She held her head on the point of impact and looked at what just hit her: a collar with a small, white sphere. It was shaking.

Breathing a sigh of relief, she picked up the collar and turned a crank on the side of the white sphere. Then a red light started to emerge from it and take form.

“How many times do I have to tell you not to go–“ the girl started before the red light finally formed a familiar figure, an Arcanine.

The girl’s face turned from anger to horror, mouth ajar while looking at the mess of the Arcanine: its sides missing skin, another side being shredded, and blood spewing everywhere. It took her several moments to realize that the Arcanine was really seriously hurt and several more moments for her to finally react. The girl hastily pulled out her cell phone, madly mashing buttons.

“Hello?! You already know who I am! My Arcanine is seriously hurt and I need you to come right away!” she yelled into the cell phone before collapsing to the Arcanine’s side, stroking its fur that still was intact. “It’s going to be okay Brenna, you’ll make it out fine,” she assured the Arcanine with tears in her eyes. “I hope.” she added to herself before stoking its fur again. “I'll make sure whoever did this will pay.” the girl angrily thought, oblivious of the fact that the culprits were on the other side of the park.

She was also oblivious to the people behind her.

Three tall figures in black jumpsuits surrounded the red-headed girl, who only had enough time to turn her head before a harsh voice spoke out.

"Grab her," a feminine voice from among the figures commanded, the other two figures following the order.

The girl dropped a strange, purple crystal as her arms were seized. She madly struggled to free herself as she spat, "What are you doing?! Let me go!"

"We are the D.A.C.U," the first figure, a woman with long, aquamarine hair answered before stabbing a syringe of a strange green liquid into the girl's neck. "And we don't take criminals lightly," the woman dourly said before shortly then injecting the liquid.

The girl's struggling ceased immediately as the other two figures, one a burly man with a serious expression, the other being a more scrawny man whose face was concealed by a pair of sunglasses, dropped her to the ground.

"Recall FCPE-008c, grab the Essence, and grab the girl; we have work to do," the woman ordered in a firm voice before the men followed their orders.


In a dark room was an aged man, grey hair brushed back and still wearing his black suit, sitting in a black leather chair. The man was going through several documents and papers with a worried expression on his face when one of the computer monitors started to display a message: Incoming Transmission.

Without looking up from the papers, the man hit “Receive Transmission” on his oversized keyboard that was embedded into his fiberglass, black desk.

A male figure, face obscured by a strange set of turquoise tinted sunglasses, appeared on screen.

“What is it?” the man sitting in the chair asked with frustration in his voice, still not looking up from the papers.

“Sir, there has been an explosion at the site where the Bugged Pokémon should have been,” the figure on screen reported with a robotic tone.

The aged man’s icy eyes looked up from the papers and furiously asked, “What do you mean should have been?”

“Well, sir, we couldn’t find any evidence of any Bugged Pokémon in the rubble of the school. That’s actually a good thing, sir.”

“Explain,” the grey haired man commanded with slight interest in his voice.

“Since there wasn’t any evidence of a Bugged Pokémon coming to the surface, that means it is buried under all of this rubble, sir. The explosion could have also harmed the Bugged Pokémon enough to keep it from coming to the surface, if it’s not already dead.” The man on screen explained.

The man digested the information for a few seconds before responding, “Very well. You should still monitor this site for a few more days even if there are no signs of the Bugged Pokémon at this time. Is that all?”

“No, sir, while looking in the rubble we also found large amounts of blood. Pokémon blood, sir.” The man on screen further explained.

The man’s head looked up from the paperwork and coldly replied, “I thought you said there wasn’t any evidence of the Bugged Pokémon, agent.”

“There isn’t, sir, but this is from a normal Pokémon. We tested it and confirmed it was Arcanine blood, sir. The Arcanine was the one who started the fire, not the Bugged Pokémon, sir,” the agent said.

“Is it still at large?” the seated man asked before going through the paperwork again.

“Hardly, sir. We have both captured the Arcanine's body ands its owner, along with a Essence crystal. As for the Arcanine itself, sir, we think it was caught in the explosion. The injuries evident were too serious for it to escape the blast and we're still trying to understand how its escaped, sir.” The agent informed the man.

“Good. Is that all?” the aged man asked, losing interest in the conversation.

“Yes, sir,” the agent on screen answered before the transmission was cut.

After a few seconds of silence, the man went though the papers, looking for something. He then pulled out a file on Arcanine and slapped it onto his keyboard desk. The document says that there is (was) only one reported sighting of an Arcanine in the world, involved with a casino fire. What was interesting was the fact that there was also an explosion at the casino. The aged man turned around his chair and hit the intercom switch.

“Dr. Ghordine, I need every file we have on buildings that were burned due to Pokémon activity and were shortly then bombed.” Aaron Ace ordered into the intercom.

Something was strange about this bombing, and if he couldn’t discover the connection, countless lives would be lost.

CHAPTER END

(Comments?)

-____- Random filler post.

Deleterious Chloroform Arch: Section 1: They Arrive

Well, that was…tiring, Caasi thought as he walked through the front door of his house and plopped onto his couch, with the Charmeleon closely following behind.

Caasi just took about three hours to get to his house from the park not too far from the site of the school explosion. The whole scene around the school was in chaos; police officers were holding back a colossal crowd of concerned parents, citizens, and newscasters. They were all frantically asking questions, pleading for more information, or just wanted to know what just happened. Needless to say, Caasi couldn’t go though the crowd with a 42 pound 3 foot lizard that was only believed to be a fictional being. He had to go around the crowd, hiding behind cars, trees, and several buildings with the Charmeleon for seven city blocks.

Caasi laid exhausted on the couch, today’s events taking its toll on him. A familiar sharp poke at Caasi’s side reminded him that he still owed the Charmeleon some chips.

“Now? We just walked about ten blocks, escaped a burning building, and basically did a fifty yard dash today, can’t I just take a short break?” Caasi lazily asked the Charmeleon while resting his head on the couch.

The additional poke at his side told him "No".

“Fine.” Caasi sighed as he slowly pushed himself off the couch and into the kitchen, with the Charmeleon following and looking at the strange, abstract structures in Caasi’s house.

The kitchen was relatively small, with only about 20 square feet of room to walk in, had an aged refrigerator, some wood cupboards, a glazed, wooden floor, peeling paint on the wall, and an almost clashing stainless-steel stove in the room. Caasi walked over to the cupboard near the entrance of the kitchen and pulled out two bags of potato chips. Caasi handed the bags over to the Charmeleon, who tore off the first bag off before hungrily scarfing down the potato chips.

With a tired shake of his head and a yawn, Caasi made his way back to the living room couch, throwing himself onto to have a few minutes to relax. Although he was comfortable on the couch, his mind was uneasy; he kept getting flashbacks of the previous events from that day.

Caasi looked at the flaking paint on the ceiling and thought to himself, What would drive an Arcanine to just burn down the school like that? Did it have a grudge, a fit of rage or something? Where did it come from? Actually, how did it even exist? Pokemon are only supposed to 'live' in TV shows and video games, not in flesh and blood– Caasi's train of thought switched from Pokemon to an event that he "remembered" from nine years ago. And why did I get flashbacks of things I never remembered experiencing before? Who was that man? Why did that fall in the elevator caus–”

YO GET THE PHONE!!!

Caasi was startled off the couch, limbs flying frantically in surprise before he landed on the floor with a loud thunk and some groaning.

YO GET THE PHONE!!!

The sound wasn’t coming from a human, but from a sickly green cell phone on the living room table with an obnoxiously loud ringtone.

Caasi, without getting up, felt around the table and dragged the phone off it. The caller ID displayed on the cell phone's small screen read "Private Caller".

YO GET THE PH–

Caasi disregarded the caller ID and quickly flipped open the cell phone just to silence it. Putting the cell phone to his ear, Caasi asked with a tired groan, “Hello?”

The phone babbled in response as the Chameleon walked into the room, still eating its chips. The large lizard sat on the floor, listening to the one sided conversation while eating.

"Uh, school?” Caasi began while picking himself up from the floor, “No, I didn’t go today, grandpa. I had, uh, pink eye.”

The cell phone babbled some more.

“Did I see anything strange?” Caasi repeated as he looked at the Charmeleon, now sticking its entire snout into its bag of chips, “No, not really.”

The cell phone babbled again, this time for a longer period.

“The school exploded?” Caasi repeated in false (although convincing) surprise. “Do you know who did it?”

The cell phone babbled again.

“So you only have one possible lead?” Caasi asked while thinking back to the Arcanine that was at the school.

The cell phone gave a short bark in response.

“Well, I hope you catch him and get the guy arrested. Bye, grandpa,” Caasi awkwardly said before snapping the phone shut.

The reasons why Caasi was lying to his grandfather was that: one, he didn’t want his grandfather to find out what actually happened, and two: his grandfather was involved with law officials, who might interrogate Caasi to tell him how involved he was in the explosion due to him being the sole survivor of a seemingly unsurvivable event. Although he was never involved with the explosion himself, he did know what caused the fire and where it probably was now. However, he didn’t want to be called a psychopath for blaming Pokémon of all things. Caasi thought it was a better idea just to let the police make up their own incorrect theory on what happened and let this whole thing blow over.

He turned his attention to the red, scaly creature sitting on the floor. “Now what am I going to do with you?” Caasi asked himself aloud. Starting to pace around the room, he mentally answered, "Well, Dad is probably on duty on the scene of the explosion to control the crowd - he is a police officer after all - so he won’t be back for a while. Mom is still busy at the lab researching some experiment or something, so she's not coming home for a couple days. So I guess that it's going to be only me and Charmeleon here for a while. Great."

By the time Caasi looked back at the Charmeleon it was giving him a blank stare, waiting for a command.

Well, I can't exactly let it sleep in my room because it almost killed me today, let it roam the house by itself due to its "fire hazard", let it outside since it would probably just cause trouble around the neighborhood, and I can't leave it in a place where it'll be left to its own devices. This would be so much easier if I had a Pokéball, Caasi thought while staring at the lizard. Or maybe I don't need one, he slyly thought, remembering the Charmeleon's "quirk".

"Charmeleon," Caasi addressed the lizard, who stood in attention. "Stay here and don't move," he ordered the lizard while pointing to the floor at its feet.

The lizard imidiately followed the order, halting all movement.

With another yawn, Caasi noticed the digital clock that was on the table behind the Charmeleon; it read 3:46 pm. It might have well said 2:46 am because Caasi was dead tired at this point. Looking back at the immobile Charmeleon, Caasi dragged himself across the hall, opened the door to his dark room and literally tripped into bed, not bothering to move after that point because he was strangely drained of all energy.

The sound of far away sounds of several sirens and a faint, high pitched buzz filled the house as Caasi fell into a deep sleep…

And disappeared…

—

An eerie wind blew inside deep in a dark, area of woods outside Trenton. However, the wind wasn't blowing from outside the woods inwards, but the wind was rushing out of the forest. Suddenly the wind picked up pace, wildly blowing, howling and even uprooting the smaller trees. Pure chaos ensued, a thunderous sound filled the air as trees were being picked up and thrown halfway across the woods, leaves dancing in an erratic fashion, and a mysterious bright light flashed, revealing the chaos.

It stopped with a loud doomph.

As silence returned to the air, there was the sound of breathing; the sounds of many things breathing. Then entered the sound of growling. Another light flashed, revealing what was now in the woods: a menacingly large, green, warted toad with a flower on its back that towered at over eleven stories tall that now occupied the center of the destroyed forest. It was a colossal Venusaur.

It was not alone.

By its legs were grass Pokémon, an army of several hundred creatures. There were Oddish, Gloom, Ivysaur, Bellsprout, and many more grass Pokémon standing below the toad's massive feet, all madly scurrying about.

The giant Venusaur croaked a low, droning, "Saur.” The sound echoed out the now destroyed forest, shortly followed by the violent shaking of the ground and a thundering boom. It wasn't an explosion, it was merely the Venusaur's footsteps. The colossal Venusaur and its army were moving. Their enraged faces made it clear what they planned to do: destroy whatever crossed their path.

And they were all heading right towards Trenton, Caasi’s hometown.

(Comments?)

>_> Some more filler post. I need time to edit the chapter.

Hooray, it's back up!

Now we can be confused again!!

lol.

seriously, tough it's good to have it back up.